Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Another Perspective

In today's Spokesman Review we have an article explaining how Idaho is one of two states that collects taxes on the sale of Girl Scout cookies. The tone of the article leans heavily towards the state taking advantage and victimizing the Girl Scouts. The state will "gobble up" 22 cents on the sale of every box. This amounts to about $140,000 a year, which is referred to as their (the Girl Scouts) money. The state is balancing its budget on the backs of Brownies.

I wonder how the article would read if the Girl Scouts used this opportunity to brag about being in one of only two states where they do their patriotic duty and support the state government that serves them and all state citizens?

Speaking of politicians who should be forced to fund themselves through cookie sales, Washington's own Norm Dicks is on the Congressional Drone Caucus. 8 million in corporate contributions to this creepy caucus.

That's a lot of untaxed Somoas!

"The mission of the U.S. House Unmanned Systems Caucus is to educate members of Congress and the public on the strategic, tactical, and scientific value of unmanned systems; actively support further development and acquisition of more systems, and to more effectively engage the civilian aviation community on unmanned system use and safety."

That's better than the Girl Scout pledge, right?

I will do my best to beHonest and fair,Friendly and helpful,Considerate and caring,Courageous and strong, andResponsible for what I say and do,And to respect myself and others,Respect authority,Use resources wisely,Make the world a better place, andBe a sister to every Girl Scout.

Pelosi isn't just another Scout. She's the Democratic troupe leader and den mother. She represents the Democrats on this issue. There has been no rebuke from the White House. Democrats make me want to blow my cookies.

So now Democrats can disappear Muslim-American citizens because they don't "value life" and the polls say so? This is Pinochet talk.

Worse.

First they came for the Muslims, and I said nothing because I was not a Muslim.

That is $144000 that the Girl Scouts won't be able to use to teach young girls to be independent and empowered and all those other nasty LIBERAL ideas that are put into the minds of our innocent children. Just another service of government helping out the people of the great state of Idaho. Hold on, government doesn't help people, or does it. I get confused on who it helps and it doesn't. OH! Never mind.

Cali is an interesting case of a tolerant image obscuring an extremely bigoted history and culture. The Indian genocide there was extreme in both its effectiveness and chaotic mass participation. When (white) Californians did put together an organized Indian War they also invented Gitmo--they stuck the Modoc on Alcatraz in SF bay and in a legal limbo ending in tribunal kangaroo courts. Sound familiar?

So California doesn't have to look to the South for inspiration, but they did! The whole film industry is basically built on Birth of a Nation, the racist movie that celebrated the KKK. Kathryn Bigelow is within same clan of Hollywood filmmakers as DW Griffith.

Anyway, it's not surprising that Pelosi and Feinstein both lecture the nation on racism while spouting racism themselves. That's just how California works. They'll never see their hypocrisy.

US torturers said they got torture ideas from the TV show "24," but maybe the bigger impact of that show was the idea that identity can allow atrocities. An African-American President Palmer can give the moral OK to torture. An African-American President Obama can OK drone strikes and US citizen assasination. You're in Good Hands! Forget due process!

More subtly, we have Jon Stewart as symbol of left hipster irony, but who routinely gave torturers a free pass on his show (Condileeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld) to rebuild their reputations by parrying Stewart's softball "comic" interviews. OK, that's liberal tolerance right? Torture is hilarious! But, MUSLIM VICTIMS of torture never get anything like the same stage (or any) on Stewart's show to state their case. Why not bring on some innocent victims of torture, or relatives of the victims of Obama's drone strikes? Why not fly in a child victim's mother or aunt to debate WITH Obama or Pelosi or Feinstein on the human effect of the strikes? Comic genius!

At some point, Hollywood is going to want to own this counter-story, less out of a realization of its witting or unwitting complicity in war crimes, than the desire for new content and to make money. I suspect we're also at a breaking point of cognitive dissonance within the Democratic Party, including its important Hollywood Chapter. Obama has been reading Bush's lines this week, and it just isn't working.